Syracuse, N.Y. — On the final Friday night of their home schedule, the Syracuse Chiefs made a fair amount of noise across a splendid summer evening in an attempt to attract the curious to their lovely north-side ball park.

They imported Denny McLain, famous for being both the last 30-game winner in the big leagues and an ex-con, to toss out the first pitch and to sign autographs. They dangled $5 coupons to Pole Position Raceway at Destiny USA that would be awarded to each patron in the event of a Syracuse victory. They presented a fireworks show at the conclusion of their affair with the Charlotte Knights.

They also trotted out the Nos. 2 & 4 hitters in the International League (Jeff Kobernus at .323 and Eury Perez at .308) ... a guy with 39 stolen bases, 32 doubles and 29 home runs (Zach Walters) ... and a left-hander who was starting his IL-leading 26th game (Danny Rosenbaum).

But the fans? Again, they did not come. Not in large numbers, anyway. Not to NBT Bank Stadium where the Chiefs won their fifth straight contest — and extended to 33-21 their impressive dash to the IL finish line — by defeating the Knights 8-1.

The crowd was announced at 4,897. But the number of fannies in the seats was probably about half of that. And that was too bad because a lot of folks missed a pretty good effort by the home team.

Specifically, there was (a) Walters, the shortstop/third baseman who ripped a two-run triple in the sixth inning to snap a 1-1 tie and then added a sacrifice fly in the seventh to raise his RBI total to 74, fourth highest in the league; and (b) Rosenbaum, who yielded just one run in his six innings on the mound to improve his won-lost record to 7-10 and lower his ERA to 3.78.

But Kobernus, Corey Brown, Danny Espinosa and Kris Watts also contributed as they combined for nine hits, four RBIs and three runs scored to help lift Syracuse to within six games of .500 at 64-70 with 10 dates remaining.

"We'd like to get there," admitted Tony Beasley, the Chiefs' manager. "We know it's not going to be an easy road. We've got Rochester for two and Pawtucket for four. And Buffalo's played us tough here. So it's not going to be easy. But we're going to take them one at a time and try to win them all."

Beasley's got a chance, if only because he's got more at his disposal.

"We have a lot of players now who were at the major league level," Beasley explained. "Espinosa came down. We've got (Chris) Marrero, Perez, Kobernus. Brown was out for a while. We got all those guys back, so we have depth. And the starting pitching has done a good job, too, to keep us in ball games. The bullpen has been outstanding.

"It's just a combination of things coming together and getting the nucleus of the team back. We have a better lineup, a better group of players, more talent. We've just been better and that's allowed us to go out there and play better baseball."

While that has been all well and good, those empty pews were troubling on Friday night. And they've been troubling all season.

If form holds throughout the Chiefs' remaining four home games, and all evidence suggests that it will, the Syracuse club will "officially" draw some 325,000 this season -- a figure that projects to 12th in the 14-team International League.

More discouraging on the local front than that, though is this: That 325,000 mark would represent the lightest attendance figure in the 17-year history of NBT Bank Stadium. And it would be more than 100,000 shy of the park's high-water mark in 1999, the facility's third campaign during which the Chiefs "officially" attracted 446,025 with an outfit that went 73-71.

Perhaps even worse, Trent Jewett's Syracuse squad drew 416,382 as recently as 2010, meaning the Chiefs will have dropped roughly 90,000 at the turnstiles in a span of just three years.

It is a concern, but it is not Beasley's concern. His charge is to finish this season out . . . and to do so at its current pace.

"It's been slow and it's been quick," he said of the arc of this campaign that hit its nadir on June 28 at 31-49. "When you're losing and you're playing bad, as we were early, it's slow. But with the way we've played since the All-Star break, the season has moved along fairly quickly."

Now, it if can only get saluted by the fans . . .

HOW THE RUNS SCORED:

Knights' 2nd inning: Michael Earley hit a lead-off single. Jim Gallagher followed with a single, advancing Earley to second base. Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch by Chiefs pitcher Danny Rosenbaum. Miguel Gonzalez hit a single, scoring Earley. One run, three hits. Charlotte 1, Syracuse 0.